A major debate these days has been how to regulate the selling of vapes, since they are excessively falling into the hands of minors. There have always been ways for minors to obtain products with age restrictions, but people have been concerned that companies are intentionally targeting the youth with their vaping advertisements.
After announcing a statewide ban on flavoured nicotine vaping products on Wednesday, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer said, “As governor, my number one priority is keeping our kids safe. And right now, companies selling vaping products are using candy flavors to hook children on nicotine and misleading claims to promote the belief that these products are safe. That ends today.” Governor Whitmer is countering misleading advertisements by banning any that use terms like clean, safe or healthy.
Studies have shown that the various flavours of nicotine now offered are what attract, and then hook, young adults to vaping. The Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center obtained firsthand accounts from young vape users that corroborated this suspicion and also discovered that adults who are trying to wean off cigarette smoking habits tend to use tobacco-flavoured products.
Considering that vaping has only recently become a widespread phenomenon, research is still being conducted to determine precisely what health consequences it entails. Some studies are showing that it leads to an increased vulnerability to heart and lung disease. As we gain more information about the health impacts of these products and more statistics about how many adolescents are becoming susceptible to the lure of vaping, we should expect to see more bans like the one enacted in Michigan.
